Stargazers
by Lakritzwolf
Summary: Written for the Fallout Kink Meme in LiveJournal: Fluff attack.   Don't look at me like that.


**Written for the Fallout Kink Meme in LiveJournal**_  
><em>

_Fluff attack:_  
><em>Okay, (...) I would like to see some fluff, with the most unlikely people. I was thinking FLWJericho (since Jericho is the last one to be fluffy) or (...) or who ever turns you on._

So I thought: Eh? Jericho? Fluff? And then I went ahead and wrote something... I gather this is as fluffy as I can get him to be without him being ooc. To be honest, I loved writing this, but it was really hard work. Opinions, anyone?

* * *

><p>The Wasteland is a dangerous place. A lonely place. A wild place. And at night, it is a dark place. Because without artificial light, without stray light from any settlements near or far, there is only the moon and the stars. And the stars without any artificial light to disturb their glamour can be amazing, as everyone knows who has ever spend a night outside far away from larger settlements or even in the true wilderness.<p>

Every night out here, she was admiring the stars overhead, hating her father for taking this away from her. She had never seen the sky before she had been kicked out, and pictures did do this glory no justice. She kept her thoughts to herself, though. The wasteland has no place for stargazers.

But this night, new moon without anything but stars, the sight above her took her breath away. She was lying flat on her back, exhausted and worn, but the sight above her made her forget almost every single pain. The only thing she couldn't forget, because she couldn't ignore it, was Jericho's laboured breathing beside her. He'd been shot in the gut, and even though she had done for him what she could, it was doubtful if he would survive. He had lost massive amounts of blood, and even though she had been able to dig the bullet out before putting several stimpacks into him, his face was pale and waxen and his skin cold and clammy to the touch.

She doubted he would make it. And even if she was called the bane of the wastelands by some, even if she had done things that would make her father turn in his grave a dozen times, the hell if she would give him up without a fight. He had saved her arse plenty of times. Now it was her turn. The problem was that she didn't know what else to do for him. She had the feeling that he should not pass out on her now, that if he would fall asleep, his cardio-vascular system would check out. She had to keep him awake, but she dared not to put any more stimpacks into him. The cocktail they contained was powerful, and for a weakened system they could be fatal if applied incautiously.

His eyes were already closed. Just a little, maybe half an hour before she could apply the next stimpack.

"Hey, Jericho?"  
>He opened his eyes. "What."<br>"Have you ever wondered about why there's so many of them?"  
>"What the fuck are you talking about?" His voice was low and cracking.<br>"Stars. Look up. There's myriads of them."  
>"So what. It's just stars."<p>

She pondered this. Of course, he had grown up here; to him a starlit night was nothing special.

"Did you know that each of them is a sun just like hours? Among the closer ones are planets, just like ours." She chuckled. "Maybe not just like ours, but planets. There's so many worlds out there we don't have numbers high enough to count them."  
>Jericho's cough was followed by a painful groan. "This fucking hurts."<br>She turned her head to look at him. "I don't dare to give you any more right now, just tough it out for a while longer."  
>"That's fucking easy to say for you, kid."<br>"Don't fall asleep", she said, alarmed because he had closed his eyes again.  
>"I'm fucking tired."<br>"I know. Just keep awake until I can give you more meds. Okay?"  
>"Fuck, kid. I'm done for. Why don't you just put me out of my misery and go?"<br>"Because I don't give up on someone who's saved my arse as often as you've done, Jericho."  
>He grumbled, but dragged a hand down his face. "Fuck, this really hurts."<p>

She could hardly imagine how much it had to hurt if the though old boot would complain about it that way. Trying to distract him, she pointed upward.

"See. That's the Milky Way. It's the galaxy our solar system is part of."  
>"What a stupid fuck. Milk."<br>"It's not milk, but it looks milky. I didn't make this shitty name up."  
>His grunt seemed to contain a half-hearted chuckle.<br>"There's trillions of suns and worlds out there, in our galaxy. And in the emptiness around it, there countless other galaxies."  
>Jericho seemed to contemplate this for a while. Then he said: "What a fuck. So this wasteland is no more than a piss-puddle on a giant world that's not more than a fucking dust-mote in the darkness out there?"<br>"Yeah, I think you could put it that way, although that sounds rather hopeless."  
>He snorted. "This whole turd of a world is hopeless. You get dumped into it, you fight your way through it, try to keep what you gained, and then someone comes who's younger and faster, takes it and you... take a dirt nap... oh shit." He coughed again, and it sounded very painful.<p>

She checked on him again, his pulse was weak and flattering, his skin even colder than before. It didn't look good. "Just hold on a little longer."  
>"What the fuck for, kid."<br>"Because I can't stomach the thought of being alone out here?"  
>Jericho barked out a laugh, regretting it instantly. With a groan, he let his head drop back. "Fuck, kid. As if someone like you needed a backup. Couple of months ago, maybe. You can fuck the shit out of anyone you like, kid. Don't need an old wreck like me anymore."<br>"Maybe not", she replied slowly, her eyes still searching the sky. What for, she had no clue, but a glance at him told her he was gazing upward, too.

"Some ancient civilisations believed them to be holes in the fabric of the sky, through which you could see the light of the gods."  
>"What gods?"<br>"I have no clue."  
>"Maybe it's that atom shit that fucking loony in Megaton is ranting on about."<br>She chuckled. "Maybe. I've also read about beliefs that stars were fires, lit by souls who had died and left the world."  
>"Seems kinda boring, just sitting there at a fire in the darkness for all eternity."<br>"Maybe it was in the divine hunting grounds or something."  
>"What the fuck would anyone hunt there?"<br>"No idea. Ethereal Molerats?"  
>Jericho snorted again.<p>

"You know kid", he said after a moment. "I've always thought that if you die, you just check out. Puff, gone. No more shitting around."  
>"A lot of people believe that their souls will go on."<br>"To fucking what?"  
>"You know, the different answers to that question have probably led to more wars in history than anything else."<br>"Yea, humans are fucking shit like that."

In the silence that followed, while she listened to his laboured breathing, she was hit by another memory.

"Hey, you'll like this one."  
>"That about those fucking stars, as well?"<br>"Nope. It's about afterlife. There was an ancient civilisation called Vikings. They believed that if a man died honourably in combat, he would go to Valhalla, where the gods live, into the house of the leader of gods, and there would be a fighting and feasting and drinking until the end of the world would come."  
>"Heh." He chuckled. "Yeah, I fucking like that. Valhalla. Booze every day?"<br>"Yep. Booze and food and fights."  
>"I fucking like that a lot." He coughed again. "Jesus fucking Christ, kid, can you not off me and be done with it?"<br>"No. But I think I can give you another stimpack now."  
>"Wow, more fucking needles."<br>"Just hold still."

He eyed her as she applied a stimpack, cautiously inserting the needle into his belly just under his breastbone. "Fuck, it should be me sticking pointy things into you kid, not the other way round."  
>She chuckled. "Well, if you've got plans like that, then you'd better not check out on me, do you?"<br>"As if." He let his head fall back and closed his eyes. "Can I go the fuck to sleep now?"  
>He didn't open his eyes again, no matter how much she stared at him. With a sigh, she settled down beside him. "Go the fuck to sleep."<br>"Who's keeping watch?"  
>"We gotta take our chance tonight. I'm fucking exhausted."<br>"Well, see ya in Valhalla tomorrow, kid." He chuckled. "Booze and brawling, here I come."  
>"Yeah. Just get the hell out of here after I tore out my legs to save your hide." Frustrated and tired, she wiped her eyes and looked away as she saw him, from the corner of her eyes, turn his head toward her.<p>

Trying to distract herself she tried to find patterns in the stars above her when something softly brushed her fingers. It was a hand. It closed around her fingers and stayed there, the thumb running across the back of her hand a few times. She stared up in the stars again, listening to his breathing slowing down, but steadying into what seemed to be reasonably restful sleep.

He was not the man to have words for this, and would probably not even admit it, but his hand around hers was lying there like a living promise that he would hold on. Listening to his breathing deepening as the last of the pain slowly receded, she slipped away as well.

She awoke when the light of the rising sun topped the rocks they had used as windshield and fell directly into her face. His hand was gone, and she shot upright only to see him crouch beside a freshly-build fire.  
>"Hey kid. You were out like a stiff."<br>She stretched and could hear a lot of her joints cracking in completely new ways. "I was fucking tired, as well." She walked over to him, deciding not to bring up the topic of holding hands in the middle of the night. "Are you cooking?"  
>He snorted. "I put a fucking can of beans into the fire."<br>"Still. Warm breakfast." She rubbed her hands together in glee.

She noticed that he didn't look at her while they ate, but she only cast a glance every now and then from the corners of her eyes. When they had packed up, she couldn't stand it any longer.

"What about Valhalla?", she asked with as much balls as she could muster.  
>He shifted his shoulders, looked past her for a long while and finally back at her face. "You know what kid?" She tilted her head, and he grinned as he slung an arm around her hips to pull her close. "Valhalla can fucking wait. I got things to do right now."<p>

His lips tasted of the Scotch he had washed down his breakfast with.


End file.
